


Tainted Love

by MyNameisChristmas



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2013-08-15
Packaged: 2017-12-23 12:23:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/926383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyNameisChristmas/pseuds/MyNameisChristmas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*!This is 2p!*<br/>I've had people ask why Hong Kong was being so cheery.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>it's /2P/!</p></blockquote>





	1. The First Meeting

Emily Jones, or otherwise, The United States of America, sat in another pathetic attempt at a world meeting, tapping her nails on the table impatiently.

She figured everything was going as usual, but she wouldn't know that, because she wasn't listening;

It wasn't every meeting they requested the presence of both male and female representations of a nation, the generally resulting chaos didn't fair well for anyone.

At this time only certain nations had been called, but Emily didn't give this a second thought, the only thing she found different about this meeting than any other was the SAR sitting on the other side of the table she'd just noticed, watching her avidly.

She found this odd not only because no one often showed any granted interest in her, and frankly because it's just strange to find someone staring like that, she knew next to nothing about the....whatever it was, or any other small nations or non-nations for that matter, not for lack of education but lack of interest, and so, she didn't have an idea who she was looking at as these thoughts ran through her mind and she found herself staring back.

When the other noticed and waved, smiling brightly, she immediately looked away, at the far wall, and attempted to ignore them until the meeting was over; but couldn't help looking back once or twice, where she would find the same bright face looking back at her, much to her blatant irritation.

Emily decided to stop Yang Wang, -she couldn't help but snicker a bit at the very thought of his name- or The People's Republic of China, to confront him about his subordinate.

"'t's this, bring your daughter to work day?" she asked bitterly, leaning on the frame of the door and blocking his exit.

"He's not my daughter." he replied with a similar tone.

"Well-" as she spoke up again a cheerful, yet shrill, voice rang out behind her, "Lǎoshī!"

Yang directed his attention behind her, narrowing his eyes, "Shi, Hong Kong."

Emily turned around quickly to see, once again, the same amber eyes beaming at her.

"Do you know her, lǎoshī?"

Yang opened his mouth to say something but Emily promptly cut him off, "Everyone knows me. I'm America." she said placing a hand on her bare hip.

"Hi! What's your name? Your hair is pretty, can I smell it?" he said smiling.

She was more taken aback than annoyed with him initially, but quickly snapped back, " 'scuse you...?"

He blinked curiously, tilting his head to the side, "...what?"

Emily just stared at him blankly, he didn't seem to see anything wrong with what he'd just said, as he took note that she was unable to speak and continued, "I'm Hong Kong! my name is Tai-Yang Wang." he smiled at her again and reached out to touch her hair.

She immediately slapped his hand away, and glared fiercely "I'd ask who the fuck you think you are if you hadn't just introduced yourself."

He frowned, holding his hands behind his his back "I-I'm..sorry...? Can you please tell me your name?"

"...Emily. Emily Jones." she said relaxing her gaze and sliding her hands into her pockets.

The smile returned to his face, "That's a pretty name."

She just stared at him again.

On what grounds did that call for a compliment?

She shook her head lightly and narrowed her eyes again,

"....do you need something?"

He continued to smile brightly,

"No." he shook his head over-zealously,

"Then why the hell were you staring at me for hours??" as if she wasn't fed up with this kid enough already.

"There wasn't anything else worth looking at after I saw you!"

".....what."

She _did not_ just hear that,

Nope.

Definitely not.

He just stood there in front of her smiling brilliantly;

She...didn't understand this, not at all; why would he say something like that? To her of all people...

She ought to knock him upside the head, but, she didn't want to.

"I said, there wasn't anything else worth looking at after I saw you!"

He said it again.

She had to do something, it certainly wasn't like her to just stand there gawking at him like he'd done something impressive.

Of course by this time Yang was more tired with the both of them then Emily would ever be, so he pushed past her and walked off down the hall; Tai watched him walk away and then turned back to her.

"...Emmy, are you okay?"

She snapped out of it again and placed both hands on her hips, regaining her pessimistic demeanor.

"What did you just call me??"

"...Emmy?"

_"Don't fucking call me that."_

She started down the hall in a huff,

but this wasn't like her, she was being childish almost.

"But...Emily," he followed her without a second thought; she stopped and turned around again.

"I don't know you, kid, we shouldn't be on a first name basis, you're sure as hell not giving me a nickname, and.......what the FUCK is up with your hair..???"

She became distracted suddenly, as she'd just taken note of his scarlet orange hair.

"...W-what about it?" he asked concernedly, holding his head,

"It's...red." She blinked blankly at him, "...and you're Chinese."

He gave a serious look she was surprised he was even capable of, "I'm not Chinese Emily." he let his arms fall to his sides again, "I'm Hong Kong-...ese." he finished, blinking;

_"....Hong Kongese."_

Emily lost any kind of impression with him she'd gained, shaking her head "...Fine, you're Asian. ..Is it natural?" she caught herself reaching for his hair and quickly unholstered the pistol on her right hip, fiddling with it to keep her hands busy; of course this didn't go unnoticed, not whatsoever, as Tai jumped considerably and hid behind his hands.

"U-u-um...y-yes..? I haven't done anything to it, a-at least not to change the color.." he looked past his hands slowly and found the epitome of judgemental looks on her face,

"...Yes. Yes, I'm going to kill you." she said tossing the gun into the air and catching it again, "Just in case sarcasm is a little too much for you, that means I'm not. But this thing /is/ loaded.." she cocked the gun over the last few words, and held it terrifyingly close to him, "...and now it's ready to fire." a wide smirk spread across her face, she'd nearly forgotten the sure fire way to rid herself of unwanted attention; ah yes, though it was a last resort, unnecessary violence was her best friend.

Tai remained very frightened, and yet, dove into her, hugging her waist tightly, burying his face in her stomach and pleading with her, "I'm sorry Emmy please don't hurt me! I don't know what I did but I'm sorry!!"

"W-what are you-..?"

Once again any adverse thoughts of him completely disappeared, she was about done with this; "..Just go home, kid." she shrugged him off and continued walking, he began to follow her again until he heard Yang call his name and stopped short, "S-shi lǎoshī!" he turned around and hurried in the other direction, but not before stopping to wave back at her, "Bye Emily! Thanks for not shooting me and have a nice day!"

...She didn't know what made him so different from anyone else, nor did it matter to her, she was leaving now, and she likely wouldn't see him again.


	2. As Days Go By

About a week passed and she figured she was right, and would probably forget the kid by the next time she saw him, she hadn't yet however, which was all the more strange. 

She was sitting in her living room alone, watching tv in her sweats, when her cell phone went off in the kitchen; she wondered whether she should even bother looking to see who was calling, as she only accepted calls from her brother, Jason, -the male representative of America-, and their boss, and sometimes didn't even answer for them. 

She didn't like getting out of the house and she especially didn't like _meeting people_ and _making friends_ , ...yes. She says that like it's a bad thing; she lived alone, and spent nearly all of her time alone, and preferred to keep it that way. 

The phone continued to ring and vibrate, awkwardly skipping it's way across the counter as she looked over the back of the couch at it thoughtfully, she could at least look, she'd see the number if she got up to dismiss the call, and her phone could break if it danced itself off the counter. 

She pushed herself up off the couch and strode over, picking it up. 

As expected, it was nothing important, it wasn't a number she recognized, she had several contacts in her phone of "DO NOT ANSWER" or "Unimportant" and any unrecognized number was clearly even less important; though something, somewhere, disagreed, as she mistakenly hit answer instead of dismiss and nearly threw the phone across the room in surprise as it admitted a familiar voice. 

"Hi Emmy! I found your phone number because I love you!-" their was an audible slap on Tai's side of the phone as he clearly hadn't meant to say that, at least, not all of that, and immediately threw his hand over his mouth. 

She was frozen in shock for a good minute or two before she recoiled, 

"What the hell do _you_ want??" 

"I wanted to say hi.." he said slowly moving his hand from his face and holding the phone with both hands, 

"I wanted to see you again Emmy!" 

She had no idea what to think, say, or do at this point, so she just went with more yelling, because, _that solves everything_ ; "WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT CALLING ME "EMMY"?" 

"I'm sorry! I won't!" 

She calmed down somewhat, which was fairly easy for her, as she wasn't so easily bent out of shape, "....You may call me 'America'." 

He was quiet for a bit. 

"Shi, Miss America." he giggled. 

She was more than ready to hang up on him, but she feared -and quite rationally as well- If she did he would just show up on her doorstep. 

"....What do you want, kid?" 

"First, can you call me _my_ name?" he asked hopefully, 

"What was it again?" she sighed, 

"Tai-Yang." he reminded her happily, 

"Okay. ...What do you want, Tai?" 

"Can I come visit-" 

"NO." she knew one thing for sure, she didn't want him to know where she lived or he'd just appear one day; 

She heard a small whimper from the other side of the phone, "But...Everyone at home is so mean.." he sniffled, "...would you come see me? You're nice.." 

"Like hell I am!" This kid never ceased to amaze her, and not in a good way, but then again, not in a bad way either. 

She sighed again, "Don't you think I'm a little old for you?" 

"No..." he replied quickly, "You're 19, physically at least." she wondered for a minute how he knew that, but simply dismissed it as something of common knowledge. 

"...What are you, 11?" He was considerably shorter than her, and very young-looking, so she didn't think she could be too far off the mark; 

"I'm 17." he pouted, "But I've been around a lot longer than that!" 

"Well I've been around a hell of a lot longer I'm sure." she rolled her eyes, walking back over to the couch and sitting down, "I don't need or want an admirer, I _LIKE_ to be _ALONE."_

"You're a lot younger than everybody else too!" he whined, "...I don't know what you mean though, can't you just let me get out of the house for a little bit?" 

"So go out by yourself." she growled. 

"But I want to be with you!" ...Could he hear himself talking? she set the phone down on the coffee table and glared at it, but couldn't hang up. 

She just sat there staring at it for a minute or so, "...Uh..America?" he sounded a bit concerned and was beginning to worry he'd crossed a line, "....please?" he squeaked. 

She couldn't take much more of this, in her head she hoped she'd never have to see him again; but in her heart, -which had never given her much of any trouble before- she couldn't help but feel like she should at least do the kid a favor, since she didn't spend her time doing much of anything anyway. 

"......You're on." she sighed, 

"..on what?" he asked confusedly, 

"....You can take me somewhere as an excuse to get away from your family. Tomorrow. Step carefully." Emily couldn't believe she was actually humoring the pathetic little twit. 

"...step where?" at this she hung up, tossing the phone onto the floor; 

"I'm gonna regret this...aren't I?" she asked the room as if someone would answer, now she was really in for it; she expected him to call back as she hadn't given him any information, but he didn't, and by noon the next day, napping on the couch, she thought she was home free. 

Then there was a knock at the door. 

She jolted awake, but didn't get up, she hoped she hadn't really heard anything. 

The doorbell rang. 

She couldn't deny that she heard it, but chose to ignore it, and went back to sleep. 

... 

"Emily..?" 

She was sleeping soundly and didn't realize at first she really heard his voice, "Emily....? You didn't tell me when to come..I thought you'd be awake by now, sorry!" 

Her eyes slid open slowly and reluctantly, Tai, who was looking down at her, smiled. 

Again, it took a moment or so for her to realize she was really looking at him, and when she did, she inevitably shouted at the top of her lungs, causing him to jump, back up quickly and trip over the coffee table, falling over it and also taking it down with him; she stood bolt upright, and looked over the flipped table slowly. Tai blinked widely, looking quite pitiful and frightened; he made to back up further across the floor but she stopped him. 

"DON'T MOVE." she stepped closer, 

his chest was rising and falling unsteadily, he seemed to understand how dangerous she could be, so why did he persist to press his luck? 

"Answer a few questions for me. How did you know where to find me? And beyond that, how did you get in??" she had a light, but almost evil tone in her voice. 

Surprisingly, he smiled brightly again. 

"I tracked your location through your cell phone silly," he sat up a bit more, "But you left the window open upstairs, so coming in wasn't that impressive." he finished, shrugging his shoulders happily. 

"....upstairs. ...the upstairs window." 

She droned blankly. 

"Yep!" he replied proudly, crossing his legs, "Can I wait here while you get ready? Your living room is nice. And your bedroom." he giggled, "I came in your bedroom window."


	3. Date

Emily couldn't conceive why she'd agreed to this, let alone why she was going through with it, but she got up, went upstairs to get dressed, and rushed back down, concerned to leave him alone; 

He'd sat the coffee table back up on it's legs and planted himself on the couch, waiting for her, and -when she came down the stairs- grinning stupidly again. 

"You look very nice." he said smiling. 

She just looked at him again, she had no words, would it be like this the whole time? Would he leave her alone after this? 

"Are you ready now?" he asked, 

"Where are we going?" she continued to stare at him blankly, 

he jumped up from the couch and hurried over, grasping her hands tightly and pulling her toward the door, "Just come along! I know you'll like it!" he giggled, 

she walked with him outside, grabbing her baseball bat on the way out; they continued silently for a bit, she was just wondering where they were going. 

"...what's the point of this anyway?" 

she wondered aloud, 

"I just like being around you Emmy!" he stated things like this so matter-of-factly.. 

she just kept walking, staring at her bat vacantly. 

"......where are we going?" 

he stopped walking and looked at her seriously again, "Emmyyyy.." he huffed, "It's a surprise!" 

they walked quietly for a bit again, 

"Don't call me Emmy." 

"...I keep forgetting..I'm sorry!" he whined, 

"I oughtta' slug you. ...It's bad enough my name already ends in a Y, don't fucking dare make it sound even cutesier." she said folding her arms, 

"But you are cute!" 

"I AM NOT FUCKING CUTE." 

He pouted and looked at the ground, still walking, she didn't know why he'd even bother with her, especially how she was treating him; yet she continued to follow him regardless. 

"What is this really about?" 

he hadn't noticed her talking as he was peeking around a corner, verifying their location in his head no doubt, before quickly snatching her arm and scurrying into and through some trees. 

she blinked at him again, in a bit of a stupor as he'd led her out to a small clearing in the trees; it was was wonderfully peaceful, there was no one and no thing around, everything was still. 

"You said you like to be alone, so i thought we could be alone..together!" 

He'd lowered his voice a sizable amount, such as when you walk into a hushed room, and feel the need to speak quietly yourself, being that the room just has that effect on you. 

The trees were mostly overgrown, blocking out the light all but in the center where a pillar of light fell gracefully, like a spotlight down from the clouds, she was simply stunned she had no idea this was here, so close to home. 

"..H-...how did you know this was here?" 

"I have my sources." he replied with a smile; once again he seemed to overlook, or honestly not care about the ramifications of his words. 

Tai paused for a moment examining the bat in her hand, "Why did you bring that thing with you?" Though his voice was still high and cheery for the most part as usual, his tone was suddenly unsteady and slightly foreboding; she looked at it herself; she carried it with her quite a bit and didn't think much of it, it was generally for defense, and the occasional property damage, "I just did, ...why?" 

"You sure carry that thing around with you a lot.." He hissed, 

She was mildly alarmed by his sudden change in disposition, "I'm...used to it.." she said, eying him tentatively, 

"Okay!" the air about him was suddenly bright and pleasant again as he sat down in front of her, "It's okay the bat's your best friend now-I'll change that!" 

"...What." 

What a confusing little shit. 

"You won't need to carry that thing around anymore because you'll have me." he hissed again, but quickly returned to smiling brightly before she could have a second thought about it. 

Once she'd stopped trying to understand him it was much smoother, she just sat there peacefully for a time, and he just watched attentively, until she felt like speaking up again, 

"I'll ask again since you didn't seem to hear me the first time, what is this really about? 'cause I know you don't mean what you're saying." she stated blankly, he was slightly taken aback, 

"Of course I mean what I'm saying Emily!" he didn't hesitate to hug her again, regardless of the weapon in her hand, he must really trust her, poor kid; just as these thoughts rolled across her mind he spoke up again, 

"Or maybe, not quite.." as expected; She patiently waited for him to continue, though he took a generous pause, "...I said you were pretty but you're beautiful, and I said you were cute but you're adorable, there's a hundred more things i could say that i haven't, and I did say I love you...and I mean that." 

She was frozen, and blushing furiously, at least, furiously as she ever did or could, she didn't know why this mattered to her, I mean, sure, she hadn't really had a love confessed to her genuinely before, but it was...this kid, and even so there was something else there, something she couldn't deny. 

Tai looked up at her hopefully, 

he didn't really expect a response, he smiled to himself at the sight of her deeply rose-tinted cheeks, and nuzzled her softly, unrelenting in his grip. 

She really had nothing to say or do, she made to continue sitting there in silence, but it wasn't the same as before; It seemed...warmer, and brighter in the small forest glade, but, it was nothing, she was sure of it. 

"..And Emmy?" he spoke again, she remained frozen, "I know you're strong, and amazing and all, so you don't need someone to protect you, but, ...I'm sure you need someone for something, and whatever that something is I'll do it." he finally let go of her and sat back in the grass with a discreet and bitter glance at the bat, which she'd dropped and had rolled an inch or two away from her. 

Of all previous confusion, the state she'd now fallen into was easily the worst. "Um....thank...you..?"


	4. Family Ties

Over the next couple weeks he called at least once a day just to talk to her, she really didn't have to say much because he just went on and on, and she continued to do nothing about this minor annoyance, he wasn't disrupting her schedule any, and with each conversation he became a bit less of a nuisance, and more of something to lean on, as annoying as it was, he never ceased to amuse her, even when he hadn't meant to, ...especially when he hadn't meant to. and stories about his family put a bit of a sadistic smile on her face; now at times she found herself just waiting by the phone, -when she didn't have anything better to do of course- as was this time, as she sat at the bar in her kitchen staring at her phone, in the same place as it had been when he first called.

"So." she looked at the phone blankly, "This is what it's come to."

The phone sat motionless and silent in the middle of the bar.

"I must be, ....really bored to be waiting for that dipshit to call.." she was clearly still in denial that she had other things to do, but chose to ignore them, because this was more fun.

Eventually, of course, the phone started to ring.

She stared at it for a minute, as it rang wildly; she had to humor the realization of how badly she wished to pick it up, and so watched it silently a bit longer,

"Damn that ringtone sucks ass."

She easily pawned off the want to answer the phone with the lame excuse of being irritated by it's ringing and scooped it up quickly,,

"Hello?"

"Hiihavealittlebitofasituationandi'mkindasortacallingforhelpbutyoucanjustcomeifyouwanttoand-"

He cut himself off with a sharp girlish scream and she heard the phone hit the ground on his end, "......What..??"

He didn't seem to have been harmed as he quickly snatched up the phone again "I'matyourbrother'shouse-thankyou-Zàijiàn! EEP-"

The call dropped,

"........what."

What had he gotten himself into?

Why would he be at Jason's house anyway?

She at least assumed that was the brother he was talking about, Michael Williams, ..it really wouldn't make sense for the kid to find himself in Canada,

But why Jason's?

Nevertheless she got there as fast as she could, she had no idea what to expect upon arrival, but when she came near Jason's house it was quite apparent.

The two were out in the front yard of all places; Jason was leaning against the brick on the outside of the house, patiently, fervently, glaring at Tai, who had his hands tied behind his back, and was sitting in the grass, leashed to a stake in the ground and looking quite pathetic.

"Emily!" Tai jumped up and ran toward her, but only had enough line to be jerked off of his feet and land near her on the ground, "Thank you fo-"

"Is this little piece o' shit bothering you, Sis?" Jason interrupted,

Tai sat back on the ground and Emily noticed his eyes burn a deep red for a moment, glaring back at Jason fiercely like some kid who's confessed his love for her three times already never could, he muttered something under his breath before blinking a few times, in which his eyes shone amber again and he began to look a bit confused.

Emily took a few steps closer so Tai could reach her, he quickly stood up again and scurried behind her, Jason raised an eyebrow at them blankly,

"Surprisingly, he's not." she sighed,

"He was talking about you, sounded like he was plotting something, ..I've never talked to the stupid little fuck before so I don't know if he can be trusted! what's he want with you anyway? Were you expecting him?"

The thing that happened next was quite literally the last thing Emily, and perhaps even more so Jason, expected, As she turned around to give him a slight look of resentment, and inform them both she hadn't been expecting him, she had barely opened her mouth to speak when Tai leaned up on his tip-toes and kissed her, before a word escaped her mouth.

Emily blinked widely at first, her eyes slipped shut slowly, Jason was taken aback.

He broke the kiss and she opened her eyes again slightly; he was glaring at Jason with those strange red eyes again, he glanced back at her and whispered sharply, "Just play along, won't you?"

Her lack of reflex had been quite astounding lately, he had the time to tell her not to react before she threw him on the ground and demanded an explanation.

Jason pushed himself off the wall and stormed toward them,

"What is this your new fuck buddy??" he shoved him backward, Tai almost stumbled to the ground but straightened himself out again, eyes still dark red and furious.

"How about yes?" he took a step forward, Emily was frozen with shock, if not by anything else that was happening at the moment, it was Tai's eyes drastically changing color, and his acting like another person;

...What really was wrong with this kid?

"Em you gotta be fucking kidding me.."

She tried to say something, still a bit dazed, but she was cut off again by the Hong Konger.

"We should just be going now, you can untie me." he muttered something under his breath again, as if finishing his sentence in some other way that shouldn't be heard aloud, at least not under these circumstances.

"Stay the hell outta my sight why don't'cha?" Jason snapped at him, kicking the stake out of the ground, "You can go how you are now, I'm not keepin' ya."

Emily remained shocked silent for a moment longer, Jason's glare shifted to her, "...He's better than Viet. I don't know what you were thinking with him."

Tai decided it would be a good idea to leap into her arms right about now.

"Go home." Jason said, glaring.

As she started to walk away Tai tugged at her collar lightly, when she looked down his eyes were innocent and golden again, "...What just happened..?"

"Hell if I know." she was surprised at him, unsure whether to be angry or impressed.

She was leaning a bit on the impressed side.


	5. Boundaries

"Emmyyyy! Emily~!"

"What the-?!"

There was a large thud on the carpet of Emily's bedroom when she woke to find Tai sitting on the tree outside her window and waving, and slipped off her bed and onto the floor.

"What the hell are you doing here now??" she stood up quickly and opened the window, to which he climbed in without hesitation.

"Thank you for saving me from your brother~!" he said jumping up and hugging her,

"..That was almost a week ago."

"But I haven't talked to you since then!" he whined, burying his face in her chest, "I tried to call!"

"I lost my cell phone.....get the hell off me!"

She shoved him back onto the floor,

"I know where your phone is!" he said, now hugging her legs instead,

She stopped trying to pry him off for a minute, ".....what?"

"I'm tracking it, remember?" he sat up and blinked at her curiously, "So I know where it is, ...you must've dropped it at Jay's house, 'cause that's where it is and that's why I was there!"

"Jay..?"

"Your brother Jason~!"

He smiled up at her innocently, as if there was nothing wrong with any of this.

"Well I'm not going back for it now."

She sat back on her bed, dragging him along with her feet,

"Can I stay here and talk to you in person then??" he said, still smiling,

"Stop touching me."

She tried again to kick him off, but he refused to let go,

"Whatcha wanna talk about?"

He wouldn't stop grinning at her,

"Get off."

"But-"

"Get. Off. Of my legs."

He let go and stood up again, then jumped onto her bed, "This is soft~!"

"Get off of there!" she quickly shoved him off onto the ground again,

"I already know it's soft though~" He sat up again, "I've been in here."

She stared at him, at the edge of glaring but mostly blank, "In my room or in my bed...."

He blinked again, "It looked so comfy when I climbed in the window and you were asleep on the couch! And I found a knife under your pillow! I thought that was a funny place for a knife so I put it away in the kitchen before I woke you."

"That's it, you're going back out the window."

"Wait-!"

She glanced back at him angrily, but simply seemed mildly irritated when she spoke,

"Okay so now you're coming into my house, lying in my bed, and moving my things? Not to mention kissing me in front of my twin brother, when I barely acknowledge you as an acquaintance!! That was WAY outta' line."

His face turned a bright pink-red, "W-what was that last part..?" he asked blinking quickly and growing more flushed,

"You crossed the line."

"n-...n-no before that."

"You fucking kissed me in front of my brother."

"I-I did what??"

He sat up and scooted closer to her again, to which she did not respond kindly,

"What you think you don't remember?" she hissed, "Now he thinks you're my new flavor of the week, I haven't had a "flavor of the week" in some time." she finished, glaring seriously,

"........but I really don't remember..." he said frowning,

"We'll you best start damn workin' on recalling, because whatever you did back there was _not_ a joke, or at least not gonna fly as one with Jason and I."

He stood up and climbed into her lap, "I don't know what you're talking about though, Oí." he looked very confused and disheartened about upsetting her by not knowing,

.....Then he got an idea,

A wonderful idea!

A _TERRIBLE_ idea;

That maybe if a kiss was what he didn't remember, a kiss would jog his memory, she hadn't thrown him off on the floor again yet .....so it must be a sign.

"Emily?"

"What."

He leaned in and kissed her from where he sat in her lap, this time her response was not delayed. At all.

She threw him off onto the bed next to her immediately and stood up,

"JUST WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

He sat up again on his knees and bowed his head slightly, taking a deep breath and talking very quickly,

"I can't remember what happened and i thought something meaningful like a kiss would definitely help me remember and there's no one around and i guess i already did it once though and if i did i'd really wanna remember it and i thought it would be okay-sorry!!!"

Once he'd finished speaking he took a deep breath and kept his head down, as if expecting to be beaten.

She just stared at him for a moment,

The poor thing was scared out of his mind, she thought for a moment maybe it wasn't such a big deal, ".....I've done worse to people who didn't deserve it."

He didn't quite understand what she meant by that, but looked up slowly to find her leaning in toward him a bit,

"Do you want a kiss, or don't you?"

He shot up from where he was sitting without hesitation, then took a slight step backward, unsure about seeming so eager.

"This is one time." She repeated a few times in the same hushed and irritated tone, "And if you go skipping around telling people I'm your girlfriend or some shit I will personally knock your block off for you."

He giggled quietly, "Okay."

She relaxed herself somewhat and brushed his hair back out of his face, "One time."

He nodded quickly, just before she leaned in and kissed him gently, then wrapping her arms around his neck, 

and running a hand through his soft, red hair; ...But, that was a bit more than she'd planned on, and when she slowly pulled away and opened her eyes, realization sank in and she shoved him onto the floor again.

"That was not what I meant!"

"But, _you_ kissed _me_! I'm sorry!!"

"This is stupid!!"

She easily grew more flushed than he'd been,

"That was too-...I just meant a little, like stupid, peck! That was too mu-....-UGH-If you-..!?"

Her nonsensical rantings were cut short when he kissed her again, just in hopes she would quiet down.

She grabbed him by his shoulders and held him out at arms length, rather than tossing him to the floor this time, "Now _what the **fuck** _do you think you're doing?!"__

"You wouldn't stop talking and I didn't know what you meant and it wasn't my fault and-..!!"

While he was talking it took him a while to realize she was walking him back toward the open window, ready to toss him outside.

"Waitwaitwaitwait!"

"What."

"We're friends right Emmy-E-Emily..-America? That's why you talk to me! So- so um why are you like, so mad at me right now what did I do that was so wrong?" he said squirming in her grip and wincing, bracing himself for her response,

"Because stalking me is totally innocent."

"It's a form of endearment!"

"Shut the hell up." She rolled her eyes at him, glaring again, "Beside that...."

She stopped to try and think of something that bothered her, that was the usual for being bothersome, and not just irritating to herself, but aside from those two things she couldn't find anything wrong he'd done, he'd been really sweet, but the sweetness made her sick.

"You kissed me 3 times now without my consent and the one time I let you that was more than I agreed to."

"But you were kissing me that time-!"

"I said shut up!!"

She wondered for a minute if there was a stronger word for glare, as her gaze seethed with confused and misplaced anger,

He whimpered quietly and resigned arguing, though he had one more question or comment,

"Emily do you have a boyfriend..?"

She was taken aback, more than confused, all of her anger seemed to escape into the air as shock seeped in, "Why the hell are you asking me that?"

He gave her a serious look, the one that looked like that of a determined 6-year-old

"I thought maybe that was why you got so mad at me, 'cause you don't want to che-"

"SHUT UP, I don't have a boyfriend!"

She was at her wit's end now,

"Oh," he tried not to smile as she might take offense to it, "Then can I be your boyfriend? It won't hurt anything! you don't have to tell anybody and I can give you presents and showing up at your house uninvited won't be so creepy! and-"

And, Tai. That's when she threw you out the window.

he made a much larger THUMP than she had falling out of bed when he hit the grass outside from the second story,

She leaned over the windowsill to look at him, wincing slightly herself, he was in a sprawled mess on the ground.

"Did I kill ya? ...Are ya dead?"

He blinked and looked up, but didn't quite, move yet, shouting up from the ground, "I GET IT YOU NEED TIME TO-..ow, TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT-I'll just......I'll just go home now."


	6. Skydrops

THAT definitely didn't bother her for days, ...or weeks, ..just two weeks, or three..

She was already used to his pestering her from a distance, but if he was going to start showing up at her house or work unannounced often, she was probably gonna kill him.

Oddly enough she thought about taking him up on his offer, but never brought it up again of her own accord,

Sure the kid was crazy.

Naive,

Clingy,

Oblivious,

Loud,

And really touchy-feely,

But fuck that, she couldn't deny the fact it was funny as hell to watch or listen to.

She practically had a minion,

She could make him a butler, or something, a loyal servant.

As sadistic as she could be, this didn't sound like a bad idea.

What did he say he wanted...?

To be her boyfriend? What is he 12?

Wait he is 12, Nevermind,

Yeah, sure why the hell not, Jason already thought that was the case;

She waited for him to bring it up again nonetheless.

As she was walking down the street on a mildly rainy day, the pitter-patter of hyperactive little feet grew into earshot behind her.

'Here it goes again..' she thought, bracing for a tap on the shoulder or a high-pitched calling out from behind her for her attention; after walking silently a bit longer, the second pair of footsteps persisting, in hopes of avoiding either greeting, she stopped short, and inevitably was run into by the slightly shorter person walking behind her.

"I don't remember." she said turning around, "Did you ever claim not to be stalking me?"

Tai was wearing a thick, warm raincoat, otherwise drenched from head to toe; his red hair was peeking out of his hood a bit as he blinked blankly, somewhat surprised.

"Nope~!" he declared confidently, spreading his arms out wide.

She just looked at him for a minute, "Well. ...it's flattering, I guess." she said, smiling softly.

He looked excited to see her smile, "You're really pretty when you smile. 

But you are normally too. But especially when you're happy." he said, smiling brightly right back;

Emily looked over him again before turning around to keep walking.

"What do you want?"

There was a thick stillness as he paused generously before continuing.

"The sky is crying.." he said looking up into the clouds,

"It's called rain. In English. It does that sometimes." she replied condescendingly, not giving it much thought,

"It does a lot in England." he added thoughtfully, ignoring the dig at his understanding of the language, "Oliver told me once sometimes the sky cries for you to show you it feels your pain. ...And it washes the world clean so you can start a better day tomorrow."

He watched her open hand swing back and forth lightly as she continued down the wet sidewalk, wanting to hold it;

"My Lǎoshī made the rain sound scary, when i asked him he said things like "Tā bèi yān sǐ, méiyǒu bèi yǔshuǐ kùnrǎo." I think...which means..um...." he tripped a bit over his shoes, distracted by his thoughts, "He who is drowned is not bothered by the rain." he finished.

She rolled her eyes a bit, still facing forward, away from him,

"It's symbolic, stupid. It sounds like...If you have a lot of shit to deal with you won't be concerned by little things."

"Oh..." he blinked and looked at the ground, and then back to her again, "Is the sky crying for you Emily..?"

She was a bit shaken by the notion, if she were to agree she knew just how true it could be, but she never let on she had any problems, not to herself, and not to anyone else; and she wasn't about to start here.

"...I asked you what you wanted."

She looked back over her shoulder a bit, taking a glance at the small, bashful smile breaking across his face.

"I wanted to ask you again..." he started slowly,

She'd seen it coming, and here it came, but she hadn't decided yet where she'd go with it.

"Emily?"

"..Yeah?"

"Would you go out with me?"

"......." she just continued walking for a bit, not daring to look back at the puppy dog eyes she was certain he was giving her.

"This is fucking stupid. ..Define go out." she said seriously, "Specifically. ...I'm not looking for a relationship."

He blinked for a moment, then came again with the look of seriousness that could hardly be taken seriously, and took a deep breath, speaking all at once;

"Can you let me hang around you for long periods of time and let it be considered adorable and caring and not creepy and I can hold your hand if I want without you hitting me for no reason and have an excuse at home for talking on my phone way more than I usually do but you don't have to tell anyone who doesn't already know or assume and I can bring you little presents and maybe stay over at your house sometimes and eventually you WILL fall in love with me but that can be debated later??"

She didn't quite hear all of what he was saying as he was speaking so quickly, so she just thought for a minute on what she had while he gasped for air.

The rain continued to pour down around them, gradually growing heavier.

Tai clasped his hands together tightly; a sweet, hopeful look on his face and a faint shortness in his breath, "Emily...?" the hair that was barely visible from under his hood was now soaked with water, and he shivered a bit where he stood.

"Come here," she said gesturing toward herself and thereby the area under her umbrella where the rain no longer fell, "Kid, you're drenched, and probably freezing." She tried to grab his hand and pull him closer, out of the rain but he pulled back at his wrist.

"Answer me!" he whined,

There was another still moment as the rain grew to an almost rough downpour; the drops of water ran down his face like tears as he stood his ground, waiting for her response.

Emily could tell she didn't have a lot of time to think about it now, but she'd already had plenty previously, she needed to answer.

"......you know what?" she said still pulling him toward her by his wrist a bit lazily, as he continued to pull back with nearly all his strength to stand in place. "Fine."

She let go of his wrist as he was swept with a look of shock, and by the force of his pulling away from her and the water on the ground he slipped and fell back onto the cement, his hood was knocked back off of his head as he hit the ground, and the sheen from his scarlet hair in the faint light was bright in the gloomy atmosphere; she just stared at him blankly.

"....Didn't crack your head did'ja?"

He sat up quickly and then scrambled to his feet, smiling brighter than ever; "Nope!"

"This rain is gonna break my fucking umbrella.." she mumbled to herself, ignoring him again and walking quickly to the nearest shop's awning or a rooftop hangover that could block out the storm.

Tai followed with no hesitation and stood next to her again, just smiling up at her; she glanced down at him, folding up and shaking out her umbrella; his eyes were glowing golden amber as usual, and she thought back again at the dark red ones she'd seen on him curiously.

Emily looked out at the heavily pouring rain and leaned back on the wall; There was a roughness and stillness to both the rain and her thoughts at the same time;

She also took note of his closeness, and took an obviously large step to the right and away from him, at which he simply glomped her at her waist again, and gave a fairly high-pitched squeak of "I love you!!"

At this she flinched a bit obviously and shoved him off again, "Hey fuck off! You're soaking wet!!"


	7. Here it Goes Again

There was an obnoxious knocking at Emily's door, for, not the first, but the seventh time in the past two weeks, she needn't wonder who was there anymore. 

"Don't you fucking do anything else with your day?" 

Tai shouted back enthusiastically from the outer side of the door, "If you don't let me in I'll come in myseeelf~!" 

"I told you not to make me regret this you little shit!" 

She shouted back, kicking her feet up onto the coffee table, having no intention of getting up, until he started rapping on the door quickly and repeatedly, until she couldn't bare the sound of it anymore. 

At which point she loaded her handgun before trudging grumpily to the front door. 

"What is it now?" she hissed, holding the gun to his head unhesitantly, 

He gave an obvious start and hid his head in his hands upon sight of the weapon, immediately bursting into tears, "Y-you promised not to hurt me!!" he sobbed, falling to his knees and clutching at her pantlegs, 

She was a bit taken aback by the blatant shift in his mood, 

"H-hey! Calm the fuck down-...I throw this thing around more than a handshake," she said, tossing the gun between her hands recklessly, "I don't have a reason to shoot you, ...yet. What do you want. You were here yesterday." She said nudging him with her foot, 

He shot up from the ground again, bright and happy as always, and trotted past her into the house, 

"I don't like it at home! Lǎoshī is mean to me!" he turned back to look at her as she closed the door, his eyes flashing red again, "And you don't regret it, you relish in the extra attention, ...nice little show back there wasn't it~?" he smirked, drying a tear from his face before blinking confusedly, eyes glowing amber innocently once again. 

She stared at him for a good five minutes without a word to say, causing him to cock his head to the side and take a step back toward her, a questioning look on his face, 

"What the fuck did you just say to me?" she growled, 

"My Lǎoshī is mean?" he squeaked, 

"After that you ignorant little-" 

"But I said the same thing after!" he whined, cutting her off, "Emmy I don't know why you're so mad!" 

She took a moment to regain her composure; if he was playing stupid he was about to take a bullet to the head, but maybe he really didn't know what was going on. 

"You have hardly given me a day to myself, and keep in mind I was practically a goddamn hermit before this." she sighed, "You don't like hanging out at home, fine! You've got some kinda sick obsession with me, fine! But I need my fucking space, you got it? Maybe you should just-....talk to me on the phone, or, something, why don't you just hang around, /without/ bothering me, alright? You know what? How about that, feel free to come in here, go through my stuff if you want to just-....don't, annoy, me. Leave me alone for a while." 

Tai blinked at her for a moment, then giggled, "I'll be a ninja like Kuro!" before leaping behind the couch with a large, ungraceful thud. ".....I meant to do that~!" 

This arrangement was a curious one but managed to do them well for the same sum of time as the other had worn on Emily's nerves, 

He seemed rather adamant though, about making his presence known by doing little things he deemed cute, and at those times Emily, really couldn't find it in herself to care he was bothering her again. 

One time of which he placed a headband with small fuzzy panda ears on her from behind while she was washing clothes. 

"...If you're going to sneak up behind me you might as well grab my ass." she moaned pettily, lazily trying to look up to see what she was now wearing, rather then taking them off to look, "What's on my head?" she asked, going back to what she was doing; 

"Panda headband!" he replied gleefully, trotting back into the room, and hugging her from behind, 

"Hahahaaa-no. Take them off." 

"But you look so cute!" he whined, swaying back and forth behind her, "You should wear them!" 

"I'm not cute, I don't do cute. Take them off." she continued blankly, 

"But you look like an adorable supervillan....with pandas! Use your panda powers to-" 

"..No." she ignored most of what he was saying, trying to shrug him off, "How about no." 

"We should go shopping~!" 

"No." 

"If you don't like them so much why haven't you taken them off yet?" he asked, reaching up and poking them lightly, "I expected you to throw them at me by now!" he finished, giggling again, 

She set everything down and flipped the washing machine on before turning on her heel and spreading her arms out wide to face him, "Look at /all the fucks/ I give!" 

She shouted blatantly, before taking the headband and pitching it out through the hallway and over the railing to the first floor. 

He blinked, looking toward the railing, before turning back to her with vaguely misty eyes, "Emmy why're you so mean..?" 

She just stared at him, "I never said I was gonna change, kid. I just said you could hang around." 

He sniffled a bit and nodded, pulling himself together again, 

She sighed lightly and walked past him, "I think I'll go for a walk, I need to hit something." 

"Are you taking your bat with you?" he chimed in from a ways behind her before starting off to catch up and tag along, 

"I usually do when I leave the house." 

She said, walking toward the front door, 

"I'll follow you then!" he smiled, "I've always wanted to see you hit fire with your bat!" 

"Did you just say 'hit fire'..?" she stopped mid-picking up her bat at the door to look at him again, 

"Yes!" he replied with anticipation, 

"I'm not setting my bat on fire you fucking smartass." she turned back and walked outside, 

The smile on his face broke when he realized what a sad attempt to fool her that was, but he tried to keep up smiling brightly regardless, 

"Okay..." he glanced around and spotted the headband on the ground, scooping it up quickly and placing it on his head before trotting after her out the door, "Wo ku bu ku ai?" 

She looked back over her shoulder at him again, seeing the ears on his head, "I don't know what you said....But they look nice with your eyes, ..I guess." she mumbled, before a faint pink tint graced her face, "You look better without a bunch of stupid accessories. If you really want my opinion." she added before turning around again, visibly growing more irritable, "But who gives a fuck about my opinion anyway." 

Tai smiled, but then frowned a bit, "Thank you Emmy! ...Your opinion matters, ........to me!! It matters a lot to me! ..but can I hold your bat for you?" unbeknownst to Emily, gears were turning in his head to find the quickest way to 'accidentally' break it, he needed all of her attention and he was already having trouble getting it, she couldn't carry that thing with her all the time outside the house. 

She grumbled to herself a bit, sliding her glasses down from her head onto her face as light came down through the trees into her eyes, and tightening her grip on the rusted, nail-ridden bat in her hand. "I'd rather you didn't, Zippy." 

"Zippy..?" he blinked and giggled lightly, "But I just wanna hold it! It must be so special if you try to carry it everywhere!" he chirped, reaching for it and playing with a nail on the end, 

"Don't touch that." she said calmly, moving it out of his reach, 

"But you play with the nails!" he squeaked, hopping up and grabbing hold of it, dragging it back toward himself, 

"I'm not stupid." she said yanking back on it and by extension pulling him close, as he refused to let go, her voice was seething with repressed annoyance, "I know you have some sick problem with me having something of value, kid." 

He tightened his grip on the bat again, "But there's nothing I could do to it here-..!" 

"Maybe if you stopped trying to change my attitude you could be something of value." she cut him off, 

"I-..what?" he blinked again, looking genuinely surprised and maybe somewhat confused by her statement, 

Seeing his unrelenting grip on the bat she decided on another favored tactic of hers, distraction. More specifically for distracting men. 

She leaned heavily on him with her chest and tried again to slide the handle out of his hand gently, "You sure you couldn't do anything..?" 

He cast a glance around curiously, looking completely unphased by the blatant contact, "Yeah, I would prefer to stab it or burn it and I can't do that here." 

She whined insincerely and leaned into him further, "But you don't wanna do that to meee.." 

"It's not you." he smiled, "It's that piece of unnecessarily violent wood." 

He was persistent, but she already knew that; She had one last idea, and leaned into a kiss, at which point the bat slid out of his hand easily. 

"But you'd rather not." she growled quietly, 

He grew lightly flushed and giggled to himself again, "Why wouldn't I?" 

"Because you don't wanna know what I'll do." she hissed, having yet to back away, then shoved him back to the usual distance she tried to keep, turned and started walking again. 

He straightened himself out to keep from falling and stared after her for a minute before hurrying to catch up, "Wait! I wanna know what you would do!" 

She turned to him yet again and pushed her glasses down her nose a bit to look over them condescendingly, "No, you don't." 

"Yes I do!" he chimed in happily, locking arms with her, "I want to know!" 

"It doesn't have anything to with what i just did, or said." She looked down her nose at him, before turning around again and walking away faster this time, "You don't want to know what I'd do if you deliberately ruined my bat." 

He pouted for a moment but quickly snapped back to giggling for no real reason, "If I got to break it in the first place I already have it all planned out, I'd have to hit you with something hard to knock you unconscious. I'm not sure what I'd do with that crap; Maybe burn it and put it's ashes in a jar, hide it with the mangled corpses in the great wall...then i'd tie you down or chain you to a wall and gag you so I don't have to hear your whining, and you can stay there until you decide you'd rather be with me than fuck around with some stupid weapon." 

She froze where she was standing and turned on the spot to get none but a short glance of the deep sinister red in his eyes fading out, before he trotted up to her again and cuddled her arm lightly. 

"You are one fucked up little shit." she stated almost boredly, 

"I don't really think so." he said smiling, 

"Don't you think I'm a little strong for you?" she said raising an eyebrow and lifting her arm into the air just enough to lift him off his feet, "You make it sound easy for yourself." 

"...Make what sound easy?" he giggled, hanging on to her arm tightly and swaying a bit, 

She looked at him, the bat and then the sky for a bit, irritatedly, before letting out a heavy sigh, "FINE." she said shaking him off, "If only because your overconfidence and optimism intrigues me, ...what do you want to do? I'll leave the bat at home." 

"Let's go to the mall!" he smiled widely and clapped, hopping up and down. 

She stared at him for a minute, 

"....Just don't make me regret this."

**Author's Note:**

> *!This is 2p!*  
> I've had people ask why Hong Kong was being so cheery.
> 
>  
> 
> it's /2P/!


End file.
